Big Brutus

We took off Saturday morning for Pittsburg, KS to visit our friends Scott and Joey Hudson, at Joey's grandparents house (aka - Scott's parents house.) On the way we stopped off at Big Brutus in West Mineral, KS. For all the details about what Big Brutus is or was, check out their website at www.bigbrutus.org Basically this machine removed the dirt and rocks that covered the coal seams, so they could recover the coal. It quit operations in 1974 because at $27,000 a month for electricity to run the machine - it was too expensive to operate. I had visited when I was in school at WSU with a couple of other music major friends. At that time you could climb all the way to the top of the black part. Now for "insurance reasons" that part is closed. You can still climb up into the orange part and walk around. Sam was more excited about running up and down the hill next to Big Brutus.


























Sam and Dad in the scooper bucket. (According to the brochure one bucket could scoop 150 tons of dirt and rock, enough to fill 3 rail road cars.)




























The size of the bucket in relation to 2 women standing next to it.

Sam and Dad "driving" Big Brutus.

Sam standing still long enough to take a picture.

Latrine anyone?